Curcumin: Not So Spicy After All.

BACKGROUND: This is a short review on the most recent studies on curcumin and its analogs, including the studies from the laboratories of authors. The diverse medicinal properties of curcumin itself reported in the recent years are reviewed. Although curcumin has shown great potential in treating various diseases, it has not been approved as a clinical drug candidate because of its poor pharmacokinetics.

METHOD: The recent methods developed to solve this problem are briefly described.

CONCLUSION: The biological and other properties of synthetic curcumin analogs (diarylheptanoids and diarylpentanoid monocarbonyl derivatives) reported in the recent literature are also presented.